I recently purchased your Auction Revolution. The information is great! I am eager to get started but how do you find true, good quality wholesalers as no one is going to reveal their sources?

This is my only set back, where to find quality wholesale products with an unlimited supply that not a million people are selling. I seem to be stuck at this point, what do I sell, where do I find products?

Are common eBay selling mistakes costing you money?
This short quiz will help you earn more money in your eBay auctions.Check your eBay knowledge now.

I get this question all the time.

To get answers for you, Scott Prock and I talked for over an hourabout researching whether items would sell on eBay, finding
product sources and tracking down real wholesalers, and adding value to
your auctions.

All of these things are crucial to your eBay success.

For example, you need to do research before you buy products
because you have to be certain you can resell them at a profit.
If you don’t have a good idea what the items will sell for, you can’t
even start to make a judgment about what you can pay for them.

Scott and I also discussed two different ways to come up with
ideas for eBay products:

The first way is to look on eBay and see what
others are selling, then look for wholesalers. This is what most
people do. They search for the hot items, or even lukewarm items,
and then jump right in.

This is usually a foolhardy pursuit, but Scott and I took it one step further and
specifically talked about recognizing items where the existing
eBay sellers are leaving money on the table. In other words, we looked for items to which we could add value.

I can’t over emphasize the importance of adding value.

Note – you should already know how to add value to your auctions.
It’s covered in the chapter on writing auction descriptions in my
Auction Revolution manual.

Before I go on, a quick aside:

One of the other questions people ask is where to find auction templates.

Adding value to your eBay auctions does not mean using a template. It means getting the potential buyer involved in the item you’re selling. It means getting your prospect to feel a sense of desire — a need to buy your item. When you do this correctly, a potential buyer will not even look to see if others are offering similar items. He’ll just buy yours.

Now let’s talk about barriers to entry.

Common barriers are minimum orders, tax licenses, applications, and other requirements you must meet before you can place an order or represent a manufacturer. Most of these simple hurdles are easily overcome with a bit of work.

This is vitally important: Most dropshipper and wholesale lists you’ll find online have no barriers — and that means anyone can buy the list.

Think about it. . .

The more hurdles you have to jump through to place an order, the fewer people you’ll have to compete with. Lower competition means higher profits.

A second important point about using wholesale lists is that they don’t help you build any new skills. Sure you might find something you can make money on, but it won’t be long before others copy your auctions, pushing your profits down and forcing you to start looking for something new to sell.

If you learn how to dig out your own eBay product sources, others will have a harder time following in your footsteps, and you’ll be able to use your sourcing methods over and over again to build a profitable line of items.

I probably don’t need to tell you this, but there are no shortcuts to lasting success.

Even so, you will rarely see anyone online mentioning the need for skills — especially not people selling lists. There is a simple, easy-to-understand reason for this:

They know fewer people will respond to their offers if they talk about the work involved. They know the lazy, something-for-nothing crowd won’t buy their lists if they’re honest about the work involved.

If you haven’t started working on improving your eBay skills, you can use the free eBay ebooks on IwantCollectibles.com to get started, or you can get the Auction Revolution and access all the skill-building information you’ll need in one easy-to-use manual.

Did this answer your question? If not, try looking at the questions and answers within the Finding Products, General category, or do a search for other questions.

If you are unable to find an answer to your question, send me an email, and I will answer it.

Many of the articles and free reports here on IWantCollectibles were originally sent to readers of my Antiques and eBay Newsletter. Not all articles make it onto the website, and readers also get notices of free reports and special offers.

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